The present invention is in the field of cold cathode tunnel emitter devices that convert light energy to photoelectrons for light imaging, intensifying, detection, or control purposes.
Although the principle of such devices has been known for some time, useful device characteristics have not been obtained due principally to the loss of electrons in the insulator and emitter layers during the tunneling and emitting process and also a tendency for rapid breakdown and shorting of the insulator layer at the high electric fields required thereacross to obtain high tunneling efficiency.